Just four months since the sixth and final installment of the "Resident Evil" franchise, "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter" hit theaters, the production company behind the hit film has announced a reboot of the franchise. In this head-scratching move, many are wondering why the franchise, which final film earned $312.2 million on a $40 million budget, is in a hurry to redo the whole thing.
Last weekend, Variety broke the news that Constantin Film's Martin Moszkowicz has confirmed that the studio is already developing a reboot. The 15-year old franchise will now see more movies in the near future, but most likely not with the original cast returning.
Milla Jovovich, who plays Alice in all six films, recently commented on the news of a reboot, saying, "Good luck with that," before explaining her thoughts on an early reboot.
Milla Jovovich surprised at Constantin Film's move to reboot the franchise
The 41-year old actress, who rose to fame with the science fiction film "The Fifth Element," was cast as Alice in the first "Resident Evil" film that was released in 2002. Milla Jovovich has since then become the face of the franchise, which according to Screen Rant has earned more than $1.2 billion worldwide.
The actress had a few thoughts on the "Resident Evil" reboot when Comic Book told her of the news. She said, "I think a lot of people with these franchises kind of put the cart before the horse.
There’s a danger to that."
Jovovich thinks the franchise is 'a great property.'
Milla Jovovich believes in how strong the numbers of "Resident Evil" are. The budgets for each film ranged from $35 million to at most $65 million, but their earnings were something to boast about. This is why Jovovich believes that the studio might want to milk the franchise some more despite concluding it with this year's film.
She attributed the success of the films to viewers who loved the franchise and were fans of the Capcom game. She did warn, however, that viewers who are fans of the game will be nitpicking, as they will be loyal to the source material and will be "sensitive to fakes."
This is spoken like a true film star who knows her work, as the franchise was criticized by a number of gaming fans who pointed out how it was a departure from the game.
First of all, Jovovich's character Alice, wasn't in the original game, while her supporting characters Leon Kennedy (Johann Urb) or Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) were in the original material. Jovovich stressed that the real fans of the sci-fi genre "can smell when something is done because people love it and when something is done just to monetize an opportunity."
The "Resident Evil" reboot is set to usher in six new movies, but it is too early to tell if director and writer Paul W.S. Anderson, Milla Jovovich, and the rest of the original cast will be involved in it.
